Train ticket prices, WTF?!

[dxbtiger]

I am back in England for Christmas this year, flying into Leeds 20th Dec to catch up with mates, then travelling down to London to be with family.

Just looked at 1 way train fares from Leeds to Kings Cross for the 22nd, cheapest I can find is 97 quid!

Up to and including the day I land, the 20th you can do the same journey for 14.60, is this purely because it is so close to Christmas or am I missing something??

Have looked on 3 websites, National Rail, the trainline.com and mytrainticket.co.uk

Should I just stump up now or is the a way of getting it for cheaper?

[mu0n]

Unless you buy a Railcard, no.

http://www.railcard.co.uk/

[dxbtiger]

mu0n said:

Unless you buy a Railcard, no.

http://www.railcard.co.uk/

Which is 30 quid (sorry, no idea where the pound sign is on this Arabic keyboard) to save 32.

Will be the only time I'll use it.

Robbing bds.

[Vieste]

Leeds to London £14 60 where was that price from?

[Poison Tom 96]

Does it have to be Kings Cross? If not play around with it to other London stations via places (Like Leeds to Sheffield, Sheffield to St Pancras) and see if this works.

HTH

[mu0n]

dxbtiger said:

Which is 30 quid (sorry, no idea where the pound sign is on this Arabic keyboard) to save 32.

Will be the only time I'll use it.

Robbing bds.

Unless there's anyone traveling with you? Because it will save them 1/3 too.

On the plus side at least you get to go back to the sunny ME after with cheap fuel and V8's.

[shakotan]

dxbtiger said:

I am back in England for Christmas this year, flying into Leeds 20th Dec to catch up with mates, then travelling down to London to be with family.

Just looked at 1 way train fares from Leeds to Kings Cross for the 22nd, cheapest I can find is 97 quid!

Up to and including the day I land, the 20th you can do the same journey for 14.60, is this purely because it is so close to Christmas or am I missing something??

Have looked on 3 websites, National Rail, the trainline.com and mytrainticket.co.uk

Should I just stump up now or is the a way of getting it for cheaper?

Have you tried National Express or Megabus?

[dxbtiger]

shakotan said:

Have you tried National Express or Megabus?

I'll pay the money rather than bus it.

mu0n said:

Unless there's anyone traveling with you? Because it will save them 1/3 too.

On the plus side at least you get to go back to the sunny ME after with cheap fuel and V8's.

Via Berlin for NYE. SWMBO will already be there, she flies back a week earlier.

Poison Tom 96 said:

Does it have to be Kings Cross? If not play around with it to other London stations via places (Like Leeds to Sheffield, Sheffield to St Pancras) and see if this works.

HTH

That does help, will have a play around now, cheers

Vieste said:

Leeds to London £14 60 where was that price from?

Leeds - KGX on Fri 20th Dec leaving Leeds at 10.45 am with no changes, on nationalrail.co.uk

[james_tigerwoods]

Use the East Coast website for the best prices (I've found) - but they are only releasing tickets until the 20th December which may explain the high price.

Also, what time are you planning to travel as that may impact prices.

Wait a couple of days, or when the tickets are available from East Coast and try again.

[Vocal Minority]

I pay £135 a month for my season pass to Birmingham (which is around 35 miles away). I am beginning to believe it is the only good value train service in the UK.

[dxbtiger]

[quote=james_tigerwoods]Use the East Coast website for the best prices (I've found) - but they are only releasing tickets until the 20th December which may explain the high price.

Also, what time are you planning to travel as that may impact prices.


I've tried everything from 7am onwards basically.

Tried to book a month ago, that 20th December date does seem to trigger some kind of price explosion.

Thanks for the link.

[TobyLaRohne]

Megabus - should cost you less than a tenner and only takes something like 4 hours.

[Bree]

If you buy a single Leeds - York (£11), and a single York - London (£51.50) it'll be a bit cheaper.

[dxbtiger]

Bree said:

If you buy a single Leeds - York (£11), and a single York - London (£51.50) it'll be a bit cheaper.

Brilliant, I am going to be nearly as close to York as Leeds anyway.

Thanks

[Podie]

You want to travel at peak time on one of the busiest days of the year for the rail network. Why is it a surprise it's going to be expensive?

[gazapc]

Splitting tickets is the way to do it (google the tool: tickety split).

Tickets back from Bristol this weekend, normal price £24.95, split ticket at tiverton parkway (saves 25%) and then upgrade to first for 2nd 1/2 of the journey (save another 20%). Great logic...

[Alex]

If only you had the option of HS2!

[dxbtiger]

Podie said:

You want to travel at peak time on one of the busiest days of the year for the rail network. Why is it a surprise it's going to be expensive?

I was never expecting it to be 'cheap', fully aware that UK Residents get shafted over and over for such services.

I just wasnt expecting it to be more than 6 times more expensive than it would have been had travelled 48 hours earlier.

[Amateurish]

Wait until they have released the AP tickets for the 21st.

[dxbtiger]

Amateurish said:

Wait until they have released the AP tickets for the 21st.

Sorry, the what?